


Garak's Letter Back

by Bluemeany



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: A Stitch in Time - Andrew Robinson, Ficlet, Gen, Letters, M/M, Meta, Sad, Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-07
Updated: 2018-09-07
Packaged: 2019-07-08 07:49:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15926051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluemeany/pseuds/Bluemeany
Summary: From Cardassia, Garak writes to explain why he sent the doctor "A Stitch in Time" (aka. a full length memoir addressed directly to Bashir) rather than, you know, just corresponding like a normal person and mailing a letter.Response to @sad-eyed-lady-of-the-low-lands super funny post that imagined how bewildered Bashir would be to suddenly receive a whole bloody novel on his PADD.





	Garak's Letter Back

Doctor,

I have a confession to make. When we started meeting for lunch and swapping our stories, I did not expect you to read each novel within the week.

And yet you did. Time after time. That first year we were friends, we got through close to a hundred novels! Did you realise that? I diligently made my way through one Human book and one Cardassian book every week.

Granted, I had little else to occupy my evenings on the station. Even so I could barely keep up. At the time, I assumed your life was as empty as mine.

Or perhaps, I merely hoped that it was.

A man who finishes all seven volumes of _The Never Ending Sacrifice_ in as many days clearly has too much free time on his hands.

But the pieces of your puzzle fell into place over the years. Your life wasn’t empty. You weren’t lonely. You read fast - simple as that. Augmented eyes can take in a whole page at a glance; can finish an entire novel in a single hour.

Do you know how extraordinary that is Doctor? You can be Ilojanas falling in love; Tavor betraying Maleoc; Macbeth plotting against Duncan. You can tumble down a rabbit hole; have your world invaded by Martians; journey to the Misty Mountains and back again…

…and all, for you, within the span of a solitary evening. While the rest of us have to make do and plod along on the slow path.

In time, it became very clear: you had your work to fill your days and more than enough friends and lovers to occupy your nights.

And I only had you. Lunch every Friday and the rest of the week to study for it.

Now, my life is full again. But I wonder about you. With Chief O’Brien and Ezri Dax now gone; are you beginning to find the station as cold and lonely as I once did, all those years ago?

Would you tell me if you were?

Would you tell anyone?

We all have our truths and our secrets Doctor. But in answer to your criticism about why I can’t 'correspond like a normal bloody person': for the man who reads pages at a glance, a letter would hardly suffice. Even read twice, it would occupy less than a minute of your time.

A 388 page novel will entertain you a little longer. By my estimates, roughly the length of a lunch time.

Your affectionate friend,

Garak


End file.
